Thursday morning Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner will be joined by the youngest daughter of President Lyndon Johnson and others to announce the creation of a statue to honor America’s 36th President. They’ll be joined by Charles Foster, co-chair of the LBJ Advisory Board, and architect CK Pang.
The eight-foot monument will be placed in downtown Houston in Little Tranquility Park not far from statues that honor President George H.W. Bush and Secretary of State James Baker. Each had an enduring impact on the city that outlived their lifetime.
Johnson was born in Stonewall, Texas in 1908, and after a political career that included holding the seat of Senate Minority and Majority Leader he was elected Vice President in 1960 and became President following the assassination of John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963. His 1964 reelection was one of the biggest landslides in U.S. history.
Johnson returned to the state in 1969 after leaving the White House. The landscape of Houston was forever changed by his commitment to bring NASA and the nascent U.S. space industry to Texas in 1961. In 1973, the Manned spacecraft Center in Houston was renamed the Johnson Space Center. Texas recognizes his birthdate, August 27, as a legal state holiday.